A Note About Mongoose

Walgoose. Image taken from Walmart.com

Mongoose is a confusing case study.  While you may find a Mongoose at your local Walmart for less than $300, you may find a Mongoose at your Local Bike Shop for $3,000.  What gives? 

There are more technical explanations available about what happened to the Mongoose brand name (or for more info, read some of the comments on this post), but here's the long and short of it:

• The Mongooses at Walmart are big and heavy with crappy components
• The Mongooses at your LBS are nice bikes, with quality construction and components that appear on the normal spectrum of bicycle industry use.

Sure, I've heard that the standard Walgoose (Walmart Mongoose) frame is pretty decent construction.  Still, there are two issues.

1. The frame is heavy as snot.
2. Unless you completely strip the bike down and completely rebuild it (including shock), the components on the thing will fall apart under any sort of serious use.

Mongoose Teocali.  Image taken from JensonUSA.com

As with my previous post, I still recommend that you buy a hardtail and/or a used bicycle in good condition rather than buy a Mongoose from Walmart.  I wholeheartedly am for you buying a decent Mongoose bicycle, such as a Teocali, at a reputable local bike shop.  Go for it! 

Whatever bicycle you decide to buy, do some research, read some reviews, and test ride some rigs to make sure that you are getting a decent bicycle.  Do not just buy the first bike that you see.  Rather, shop around for the right deal on the right bike.

Read the whole series:
This post is a part of the series "Buying your first mountain bike? Here's what you should and shouldn't do." For a well rounded and informed view of the topic, I suggest reading all of the posts in the series.